The Golden Flashes welcome 4-5 Wright State to MAC Center for a 4pm interstate clash. Wright State has split two games against Mid American Conference opponents. The Raiders defeated Toledo but lost to the RedHawks.

The Raiders have some size, including a big 6’10 280 pound sophomore and a 6’9 senior from Toledo St. John HS. They also rank in the top 60 in the once United States in three point percentage.

They are all big games, but this is one the Flashes really need. Protect home court and flex some muscle. Additionally, WSU has beaten Kent State two years in a row.

I'm impressed with how well this team is closing out games already. With so many new faces I expected that to take a lot longer. Also, this game was a great test for how we'd handle more size inside and I thought handled it pretty well. We out rebounded then 31-26 and beat them on second chance points 14-7. A lot to be encouraged about from this one.

One other comment... Easily the worst officiated game of the year. There were a lot of individual calls I could pick out both ways, but I'll just summarize with this. Usually all players and coaches can ask for is consistency. If they're being consistent at least you can attempt to adjust to the refs. Last night the first foul of the game was called with 11:12 remaining in the first half. So they went nearly 9 minutes without calling a foul. Over the remaining 31 minutes they called 38 fouls.

One more comment on this team. Obviously, I'm really happy with where they are right now. These next two games should tell us a lot about what to expect the rest of the way though. As good as we've been, we've got the worst strength of schedule ranking in the MAC (according to KenPom) to date. So it's possible that this 8-1 record is a little bit of fools gold at this point.

(12-09-2018 10:13 AM)anti-zip Wrote: One more comment on this team. Obviously, I'm really happy with where they are right now. These next two games should tell us a lot about what to expect the rest of the way though. As good as we've been, we've got the worst strength of schedule ranking in the MAC (according to KenPom) to date. So it's possible that this 8-1 record is a little bit of fools gold at this point.

I am guessing a lot of KenPom SOS numbers are still from last season ... WSU has played a solid schedule, so has Liberty and of course, Vanderbilt. While Detroit is bad, they have basically played more than half the MAC already ... so the guess here, by the end of the month, those numbers might look different.

THAT SAID ... do agree the next few games should tell a lot. Winning on the road, even against bad teams, is not automatic and at least shows something. Kent could have lost at both Vandy and Detroit (and Cleveland State for that matter) and didn't.

So we've only played 2 teams that are even close to being top 100 teams.

You are right that by the end of the month our SoS will look better, just because Louisville and Oregon St. are top 100 teams. Louisville is 40 KP and 32 BPI. Oregon St. is 65th KP and 88th on BPI. This is shaping up to be an odd year where or non conference SoS may be worse than our in conference SoS. Currently only 4 of our non conference games are top 100 games (and Liberty could easily fall out outside the top 100) while 6 of our non conference games (including Albany) are outside the top 200 (8 if you include the 2 non D1 games). Right now both Toledo and Buffalo are firmly inside the top 100, Ball St and Akron aren't far from it, and only WMU is outside the top 200 in both systems. A lot will change between now and the end of the season but it's unlikely that teams outside the top 200 right now end up looking solid by then.

The good thing is, we're doing exactly what we should do with a weak SoS... winning.

anti-zip, what really struck me early on about the 1998/99 team (the first season in the current streak of seasons without a losing record) was how they closed out games. Now, I'm not comparing this team to that one, at least not yet, but I also like how this team has been doing that so far. Really, relatively few games between D I teams, especially mid-majors, are blow-outs. Most games are won or lost down the stretch, the last five minutes or so, depending on who makes the most plays, offensively and defensively.

(12-09-2018 11:30 AM)anti-zip Wrote: You are right that by the end of the month our SoS will look better, just because Louisville and Oregon St. are top 100 teams. Louisville is 40 KP and 32 BPI. Oregon St. is 65th KP and 88th on BPI. This is shaping up to be an odd year where or non conference SoS may be worse than our in conference SoS. Currently only 4 of our non conference games are top 100 games (and Liberty could easily fall out outside the top 100) while 6 of our non conference games (including Albany) are outside the top 200 (8 if you include the 2 non D1 games). Right now both Toledo and Buffalo are firmly inside the top 100, Ball St and Akron aren't far from it, and only WMU is outside the top 200 in both systems. A lot will change between now and the end of the season but it's unlikely that teams outside the top 200 right now end up looking solid by then.

It's early but this is shaping up to be the MAC's best shot at 2 NCAA bids in a long time. We should've had multiple bids inn 03-04 but as most of us know it's been since 98-99.

(12-09-2018 09:03 PM)Muskrat Wrote: anti-zip, what really struck me early on about the 1998/99 team (the first season in the current streak of seasons without a losing record) was how they closed out games. Now, I'm not comparing this team to that one, at least not yet, but I also like how this team has been doing that so far. Really, relatively few games between D I teams, especially mid-majors, are blow-outs. Most games are won or lost down the stretch, the last five minutes or so, depending on who makes the most plays, offensively and defensively.

To add to that, something I hadn’t noticed specifically but was in the Dayton Daily News account of the game: KSU scored on its last 10 possessions of the game. That’s clutch playing.